Sean Considine, colleges say world is ready for openly gay players in NFL

Thursday

Feb 13, 2014 at 6:06 PMFeb 13, 2014 at 6:06 PM

By Jay TaftThe Journal-Standard

Michael Sam set change in motion Sunday night.

Now, we will find out whether the sports world is ready for it.

Many from the Rock River Valley believe it is.

"Somebody's sexual preferences is their own business, and a lot of us believe it's time to move on and get past this stuff," said Sean Considine of Byron, who played nine years in the NFL.

"I think the NFL is ready for it. I think most of the world is ready for it."

Sam, the Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year and the University of Missouri's most valuable player last fall, came out publicly Sunday on ESPN's "Outside the Lines," saying he is a proud gay man.

In doing so, the senior star has set the stage for becoming the first openly gay NFL player.

Sam's announcement has some calling him a pioneer in the mold of Jackie Robinson, with others sure to follow. But how gay players will be treated is an open question.

Rockford University and Northern Illinois University have been dealing with the issue for years.

"College is a place where young people are finding out who they really are," said Kristyn King, who has been Rockford's athletics director since 2001. "Sure, we've dealt with it with some of our student-athletes here before.

"Is the world ready? I think we have to be ready."

NIU's head football coach Rod Carey went a step further.

"I guarantee there have been other gay players in the NFL, and the scouts knew," he said. "This fuss is media-driven, that much I know. Football is just a microcosm of life, and this kind of thing has been dealt with for a long time. It's just that now, the media knows about it, so they're making it into something."

Sam and the rest of the pro prospects will begin their auditions in earnest in about a week at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. Then comes the three-day NFL draft, starting May 8. Scouts describe Sam as an undersized pass-rushing defensive end who is expected to be a midround pick.

Considine, who played for five NFL teams, capped his career with the Baltimore Ravens, who won the Super Bowl in 2013. He believes the league is ready for an openly gay player.

"Everybody kind of figured this was something that had to be dealt with. This is the first step," he said. "Not everybody is as accepting as me, but it's time.

"The racial barriers went down a while ago, and nobody even thinks about it anymore. Hopefully in a few years, because of this, that barrier will go down, too."

But the response to Sam's announcement on social media suggests that not everybody is ready for change.

People ranging from casual fans to New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma - "I think that he would not be accepted as much as we think he'll be accepted," he tweeted - have voiced opinions running the gamut from doubt to anger. And there have been homophobic slurs.

Sean Frazier has been a driving force in diversifying college sports at each of the institutions where he has worked. He believes his staff and school are ready for openly gay athletes. Frazier's been NIU's AD for less than a year, but he already has formed a diversity-integration board.

"Those kind of people, those kind of voices, just show us that we have a lot more to learn in this world," said Frazier, who came to NIU from the University of Wisconsin and has 22 years' experience as a director of athletics at NCAA Division I, II and III schools.

"I know we're ready at NIU, though. I can't answer if we're ready in the sports world, but this group here, this group is prepared to help support diversity and integration of all kinds."

Most in the NFL are at least saying the right things right now.

"Each and every player in the NFL is a unique individual, as we all are in life," Chicago Bears general manager Phil Emery said in a statement issued Monday. "I have tremendous respect for (Sam) in the way he conveyed his thoughts and the courage it took to state them publicly."